Tag: 1984 was a Warning not a Blueprint

So Where’s That Change

It appears as if the current administration is all for extending the three sections of the PATRIOT Act that are set to expire this year. Of course they give the standard bull shit proclaiming how their willing to listen to privacy concerns:

In a letter to lawmakers, Justice Department officials said the administration supports extending the three expiring provisions of the law, although they are willing to consider additional privacy protections as long as they don’t weaken the effectiveness of the law

But of course only if it still allows them to stomp on civil rights:

Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that the administration is willing to consider stronger civil rights protections in the new law “provided that they do not undermine the effectiveness of these important (provisions).”

So yeah they are willing to put some clauses in that will “protect” civil rights so long as it doesn’t protect civil rights and nullify their imaginary effectiveness.

So remind me how this is hope or change.

Seriously Obama Take a Break

I mean come on you need to slow down. You’re goal of turning this country into a government controller state is getting out of hand. If you don’t slow down the entire country will be government regulated and controller then what are you doing to do? Sit on your but all day and not have anything to do that’s what.

Why am I brining this up? Because the Obamessiah is now pushing for further government control over the financial sector under the name of an overhaul. He’s going to be giving a speech urging more power to be given to the central bank and Federal Reserve. From the article:

The White House would give the central bank, the Federal Reserve, new powers over huge financial firms and the ability to seize banks whose collapse could threaten the economy.

Yes that’s going to work out just great, give the assholes who helped cause this problem more control. It’s not like the government was encouraging banks to give loans for houses that people couldn’t afford. But hey Obama is going to work on his promise to save or create jobs in the only way he knows how, create more federal agencies:

Mr Obama also wants a new watchdog, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, for products like mortgages, car loans and credit cards and the Federal Trade Commission will gain new powers to protect consumers.

This is going to be great because the federal government has been oh so good at protecting consumers from themselves. Let’s all thank Uncle Sam for taking control of our lives and regulating us heavily to protect us from what we may do to ourselves. Fuck personal responsibility we need to be told what to do otherwise we’ll fuck ourselves over!

If anybody didn’t get smeared with the sarcasm dripping off of that previous statement your obviously wearing a very thick rain jacket.

Britain Ensures Scouts Won’t Always Be Prepared

Well it looks like the British nanny states strikes again. Scouts in Britain will no longer be allowed to carry pen knives on camping trips.

Penknives may have formed as much part of the scouting experience as badges and campfires, but according to advice from the Scout Association they must no longer be brought on camping trips, except when there is a “specific” need.

Modern Britain’s knife culture, including the rise in fatal stabbings, has been cited by troop leaders — although some have countered that the code contradicts the tradition that Scouts are to be trusted for their honour.

Yes that’s right Britain doesn’t want scouts wielding those dangerous pen knives because of their new found fear of knife crime. After seeing how well the gun ban brought down the number of shootings it only makes sense to ban knives to bring down the number of stabbings… hey wait a minute! If banning guns didn’t stop shootings than why the fuck is banning knives going to bring down stabbings? It’s not. Especially considering they are taking knives away from scouts who have legitimate uses for them.

Just because the tool can be used as a weapon doesn’t mean it should be banned. But hey the first step in establishing a fascist government is to completely disarm the populace.

London’s Cameras not Working so Well

A the United Kingdom land of the oppressed and observed. There isn’t really anywhere you can go without being on some CCTV camera, especially in London. Their government is always spouting how critical all these camera are to the security of it’s citizens. So how critical are they? The metric I believe would be the number of crimes solved using these camera. In thatt case they are a miserable failure. From Bruce Schneier’s blog comes a story about how effective those cameras are. Well the rate isn’t so hot.

The cameras in London are responsible for helping solve one crime for every 1,000 cameras. Of course that means the cost to solve each crime is astronomical, in fact it’s about £20,000 per crime.

At that price you can almost hire one new constable for each camera. With the added benefit of each constable being a mobile unit that can respond to a crime, as opposed to a camera which can only passively watch, you also increase the number of jobs which will help unemployment numbers.

London really needs to look at their cost to benefit ratio on these cameras and come up with a better solution than spying on it’s citizens 24 hours a day every day.

Using 1984 as a Blueprint by “Protecting the Children”

If there was every a story to use my “1984 was a Warning not a Blueprint” tag it’s this one found on John C. Dvorak’s site. Everybody’s favorite fascist state, Oceania the United Kingdom, is at it again and this time in the name of everybody’s favorite excuse, protecting the children.

Oceania has setup a new program where they put “problem” families into a “sin bin.” This excerpt is directly from the article:

The Children’s Secretary set out £400million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes.

They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.

Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction.

Yes these “problem” families, all 20,000 of them, will not be under 24 hour surveillance by their government and have their homes invaded checked out by the Party private security guards. This is of course being done to protect the children as all invasive government programs generally are.

Just imagine the scope of this for a second. You will have 20,000 homes under 24 hour government surveillance. If that isn’t a page ripped straight from 1984 I don’t know what is. Now I’m going to extend off of this and bring up the fact that government likes to use power to obtain more power. It certainly wouldn’t take much to put more families into this “sin bin.” Why almost anything can be considered bad for children.

For instance talking badly about the government could be seen as a method of scaring your kids and frightened kids need to be protected. Not properly sorting your recyclables (current an topic of government crackdown) could be seen as destroying the environment and would impact negatively against your children in the future. Not preparing government approved meals could be seen as acting against the health of your child. The list goes on as you can make almost anything work against the welfare of children.

I think it’s well overdue time for the citizens of Oceania to rise up and take back their liberties. Oh wait never mind the government already confiscated their guns making armed resistance very difficult.

I hate subjects like this because it makes me out to be a conspiracy theorist but honestly when a government does something as blatant as place CCTV cameras not just on the streets but also in peoples’ homes you have to be at least a wee bit worried.

United Arab Emirate Upload Spyware to Blackberries, Research in Motion Posts Removal Tool

I must say my opinion of RIM just went from “I don’t really care” to “Wow talk about rock solid.” A United Arab Emirate telecom company call Etisalat posted an over the air update for its Blackberry users. Emirate said, “upgrades were required for service enhancements”. It turned out the update installed surveillance software produced by SS8 in California…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8161190.stm

From the article…

The update has now been identified as an application developed by American firm SS8. The California-based company describes itself as a provider of “lawful electronic intercept and surveillance solutions”.

Yup I’m sure the freedom loving rulers of the UAE wanted this only for lawful reasons. Wait a minute the UAE isn’t comprised of freedom loving rulers? They probably wanted this software to spy on its citizens? But if you’re not doing anything illegal you have nothing to hide hence why would you be uncomfortable with your government spying on you? Oh that’s right people like privacy.

Research in Motion, the makers of the Blackberry, stated they did not authorize or develop any such update. To alleviate this issue they have released a removal too which can be found here…

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/ataglance/security/regappremover.jsp?CPID=OTC-REGAPPREMOVER

I say good on Research in Motion.

Without Real Guns Apparently Air Guns are Scary

While many states in the United States are learning the benefits of an armed citizenry Oceania is doing everything they can to disarm the populace. Currently in Scotland there is a campaign to show the “dangers” of air guns…

http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Fresh-bid-to-take-control.5430646.jp

From the article…

The campaign will include website adverts, posters and leaflets, and comes at the height of summer when use of firearms traditionally is at its highest.

And of course we need the “protect the children” argument…

Mr MacAskill said: “Airguns are not toys, but weapons that can kill and maim. There have been tragedies that have caused pain and injury to children and animals. That’s why we believe that action must be taken.

The first sign of governmental corruption is an attempt to disarm the populace.

The U.K.’s Magical Gun Protection Barrier Failed Again

This shouldn’t be possible in Oceania but apparently the magical gun protection barrier that stops all gun crime in the country has failed again…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8127532.stm

Apparently somebody fired up to three shots into a household in Northern Ireland. Of course as you know guns are all but totally illegal in Oceania so this shouldn’t be possible. I mean guns are illegal how could somebody break the law? At least the couple who lived there were unable to defend themselves. I mean if the shooter would have entered the house and the couple living there were armed they might have shot the intruder!

Thankfully Big Brother has made self defense illegal so good hard working criminals can go about the daily business without fear of being shot by a law abiding citizen.

The Supreme Court did it Right and Wrong in One Case

A story I’m glad to see printed in the slowly dying New York Times…

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/us/politics/26scotus.html?_r=2&hp

Back in 2003 a school’s zero tolerance policy (a.k.a. complete stupidity) went beyond too far. Savana Redding was suspect of having prescription strength drugs (you know for a prescription) which the school apparently frowns upon. They decided to search her backpack and outer clothes. But they didn’t stop there, no they went for the full strip search, on a 13 year old girl.

They ended up finding nothing of course. But I find it down right despicable that a school performed a strip search on a student. This in my opinion is a complete violation of a person’s rights. But schools love to claim you have no rights until you turn 18 years old, which is bullshit.

Anyways the Supreme Court found, by an 8 to 1 vote, that her rights had in fact been violated.

Now for the part they did wrong. The Supreme Court decided, but a 7 to 2 vote, that the individuals who performed the search should not be prosecuted. Personally I think if you’re unwilling to say “Fuck no I’m not doing that, I’ll quite first.” in a situation such as this then you are as guilty as the person ordering it.

Either way there is a pending lawsuit against the school which I hope the girl’s family wins. This kind of shit needs to be put down.

More Stupidity from Across the Pond

Two stories of idiocy coming from The Commonwealth of Britain (also known as Oceania). First off we have a story from Bruce Schneier’s own blog…

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/blackburn/4425941.East_Lancashire_youngsters_see_film_on_
terrorism_danger/

The Party is showing videos to children aged at 10 and 11 years. From the article…

More than 2,000 10 and 11-year-olds will see a short film, which urges them to tell the police, their parents or a teacher if they hear anyone expressing extremist views.

This is stupid on enough levels to recreate Dante’s Inferno. First of all you know “extremist views” are anything The Party doesn’t agree with. I’m sure most people who read this blog would fall under this category, I know I do.

The terrorism message is also illustrated with a re-telling of the story of Guy Fawkes, saying that his strong views began forming when he was at school in York. It has been designed to deliver the message of fighting terrorism in [an] accessible way for children.

It’s funny I know Britain celebrates Guy Fawke’s Day. It’s celebrating by lighting bonfires (at least it was, I know many cities have outlawed bonfires). But now The Party is saying he’s an example of terrorism. I’m sure us Americans are terrorists two since we broke away from Oceania long ago.

Source: http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/blackburn/4425941.East_Lancashire_youngsters_see_film_on_
terrorism_danger/

But that’s not all ladies and gentlemen. From Say Uncle we have another story involving Oceania’s stupidity…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/5310445/Golfers-arrested-after-fighting-off-gang-attempting-to-steal-clubs.html

In the story some teenagers wielding planks of wood (I thought no violent crime could happen once you took away guns) tried to rob several people playing golf. Apparently they didn’t realize that golf clubs are equally effective at bludgeoning people as wood planks. The golfers defended themselves as they should have the right to.

Being this is across the pond though they were arrested for defending themselves. And of course the golden quote…

Mr Walden said: “I cannot say who was at fault and who was not at fault yesterday.

Maybe I can tell you what happened, some punk kids thought they saw some easy targets, they were wrong. Man I hope the people of Oceania rebel sooner rather then later.

Source: http://www.saysuncle.com/2009/06/09/where-defense-is-outlawed/